


Not Slytherin

by dedicatedfollower467



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Loyalty, Slytherin!Harry, Slytherin!Ron
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-31
Updated: 2014-12-31
Packaged: 2018-03-04 12:21:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3067649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dedicatedfollower467/pseuds/dedicatedfollower467
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Sorting Hat doesn't listen to Harry.</p>
<p>(A short fic inspired by a Tumblr post. Not a whole AU. I'm not starting another AU.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Slytherin

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [this post](http://darlinghogwarts.tumblr.com/post/102121880930/the-sorting-hat-didnt-listen-to-harry-and-yelled) on Tumblr.

“Not Slytherin,” Harry whispered to the Sorting Hat. “Please not Slytherin.”

“Nonsense,” the hat replied. “You will achieve your greatest in Slytherin. There your ambition and cunning will be honed. Slytherin isn’t the evil house you know – why, it wasn’t a hundred years ago you would have been crying ‘not Gryffindor!’”

“I—” said Harry.

“SLYTHERIN!” roared the hat.

Harry swallowed and looked over to the table bedecked in green, where a smug Malfoy had already started clapping, and others at the table were cheering for him. On the other side of the hall, the Gryffindors bent their heads and whispered together, sending him furtive glances.

_There’s not a witch or wizard who went bad who wasn’t in Slytherin_ , Harry thought.

As he stood and walked towards the table, he spared a single moment to glance back at Ron, still waiting in line. For a second, Harry worried his new friend would refuse to meet his eyes, but Ron stared straight at him. His eyebrows were lowered and he was frowning as though he were working on a particularly complicated crossword, but he nodded at Harry.

Malfoy tried to make room for him at the table between himself and Goyle, smiling, as if their previous interactions had never happened at all. But Harry ignored the boy and sat down at the other end of the table, between two rather imposing upperclassmen which, in retrospect, was probably not the wisest of ideas. One of them clapped a hand to his back and muttered, “Congratulations, Potter. Welcome to Slytherin.”

Harry listened in silence as the rest of the names were called – most of them ones he didn’t know. But when he heard the name “Weasley, Ron” he looked up.

Ron’s chin was thrust forward, his mouth pursed, as he strode up to the chair. He didn’t wait for McGonagall to plop the hat down but instead took it from her hands and pulled it down over his ears.

The boy next to him laughed. “God only knows why they bother to Sort Weasleys,” he said. “Every one of them’s been a Gryffindor for five generations, even the ones who married in. About as useful as Sorting a bloody Malfoy.”

But Harry watched. Under the hat, Ron frowned intently, occasionally mouthing words. As the quiet in the Great Hall dragged on, he started shaking his head, face screwed up in anger. Though still indistinct, the whispers and mumbles became loud enough for others to hear. Heads were turning in the hall, looking at each other in confusion. Over at the Gryffindor table, Harry watched a pair of red heads bend together.

“All right, all right!” cried the Sorting Hat suddenly. “Slytherin it is!”

Ron whipped off his hat and sprang up, his face all happy cheeks and glowing pride. He met Harry’s eyes and sent him a thumbs up. Harry started clapping.

“Well I’ll be damned,” said the boy next to him.

The Gryffindor table was almost as loud as the cheering Slytherins, shouting at each other about Weasleys and betrayal. But Ron didn’t even glance at them as he walked over to them, his eyes fixed on Harry.

The boy who’d muttered about Weasleys scooted over so that Ron could plop himself down right next to Harry.

“Did you – did you do that?” Harry said.

Ron shrugged. “Couldn’t leave you alone in Slytherin with _Malfoy_.”

“Thanks,” said Harry.

“Don’t mention it, mate,” said Ron. “When do we eat?”

 


End file.
